Grindfather
by RazorHotFire
Summary: "'Round these here parts, ya either scrap, or ya tap."
1. Prologue

The Third Ninja War was over.

It has been said that history is written by the victors, and through the efforts of one man, Konoha was recognized as the dominant power of the land. The Third Hokage, sensing the gravity of the moment, decided to pass on the mantle of Kage to the person he felt would ensure Konoha would remain on top for decades to come.

There was a reason the Third Hokage was called the Professor.

The newly-elected Fourth Hokage was the very sort of leader needed for a power like Konoha to ascend to superpowerdom. A once-in-a-millennium leader, not unlike the First Hokage, the Fourth had ideas and plans far ahead of his time. The Fourth was obsessed with perfection and efficiency, and ordered for research in all areas of ninja arts. An idealist, the Fourth Hokage was willing to listen to any radical idea, as long as there was a lot of thought put into it.

Three decades later, Konoha had been modernized to the point of unrecognizability. Buildings made of glass and steel dominated the skyline. Artificial intelligence was prevalent throughout the village. Konoha's military forces were heralded as the best in the land. The common Konohanian soldier was equivalent to 2 or 3 soldiers of any of the other villages. Konoha's economy was booming, as the Fourth had the idea of making Konoha a logistics hub, a brilliant idea considering Konoha was already blessed with natural resources. Many people felt Konoha was in its Golden Age.

Then the Kyuubi.

The destruction the Kyuubi wrought on Konoha was unparalled. The infrastructure was rendered rubble and many good souls perished in a futile effort to contain the Kyuubi. The Fourth decided to place his hopes on using a seal he had been working on in order to suppress the Kyuubi. After hours of bitter struggle, the Konohanian forces were successful in sealing the Kyuubi.

The Kyuubi attack ushered in an era of uncertainty and fear for Konoha. It would be the spark that triggered many a nefarious scheme. It was also then that immitigable darkness would spread all over the land.

This was also the beginning to the story of a boy, who, in many ways, would prove to be the ultimate underdog.


	2. The Rukongai

"Man, that's some bullshit."

"Boy, you either gon pay one-fiddy or get the 'ell out my shop."

"Man, I bought this ramen from Teuchi's down the road for seventy-five, and you trying to tell me it costs one fifty?"

"Boy, we don't sell no cheap-ass ramen over 'ere. Seventy-five my ass. Only thing seventy-five is that clown shit you is wearing."

"Hey man, don't be hating. Not anybody be making these colors work."

"With your scrawny-looking ass, I don't doubt it. You look like the personification of an orange fucked up by the cat."

"Oh, we got jokes now huh? Well fuck you too."

Naruto Uzumaki walked out of the shop to jeers from the shopkeeper - "that's right boy, keep walking." Should've known better then to cheat on Teuchi's, he thought to himself. Stupid ugly-ass looking bum-ass looking geezer don't know fashion when he see it.

It was a rather cloudy day, with a good breeze going through Konoha. However there are just some places that are so rundown and gray that a cloudy day really brings out the grayness in them. The Rukongai district was such a place, an artistic composition of such shit that critics would give a solid 9.5 on a reverse Da Vinci scale, Naruto mused.

Of course, every heavily-populated had to have a notoriously shady neighborhood, and for Konoha, that was the Rukongai. It wasn't always this way; the Rukongai was once a premier family-raising area. All it took was for the Kyuubi to come moonwalking across Konoha, and voila: a village unofficially divided into four major districts. Naruto snickered. He was indeed a master of wordplay. Should probably drop a mixtape or two.

To Naruto, the Rukongai was home. Sure, it was filled with rather unsavory characters, really rather unsavory characters, but there was a sort of blunt, honest air to it. Sure, Rukongainians weren't exactly the sort of folk you'd associate with, but there were not scum. Scum better described the rich politicians, money-grubbing fatass parasites.

In the Rukongai, the saying went something like: Round these here parts, ya either scrap, or ya tap. Power was the name of the game; you were strong, you were respected. And at the heart of the Rukongai was the Ring, where respect was earned and lost. Now, amidst all the chaos that made Rukongai the Rukongai, order and structure comprised the machinations of the Ring. The samurai had their Ninshu temple as a holy ground, and the Rukongainians bestowed the same amount of sanctity to the Ring, if not even more.

Naruto made his way over to the Ring, having made a pit stop at Teuchi's for some to-go ramen. There was a marquee matchup between Ranks 5 and 7, and it promised to be a thriller. The Ring was a coliseum-like structure, and usually they tended to fill up very fast. It was a full house today, however, Naruto was nothing if not resourceful, and made his way over to a seat where a lookalike of him occupied. Not for the first time, Naruto patted himself on the back for swiping that jutsu scroll a couple of years back (snort). The Shadow Clone jutsu truly was an all-purpose jutsu.

Naruto would have preferred being down there fighting himself, but he was still a couple of months off the age requirement of 16. Ring privileges wasn't the only thing accessible to Naruto once he hit the big one-six. For an orphan like him, he could gain entry into the Konoha Nin Academy and thus his first steps into his career as a ninja. Well, Naruto thought, it gonna suck playing catch-up to those kids who've been to private ninja schools. He reclined on his seat and watched the match get started as the two fighters made their way onto center stage.


End file.
